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A Bad Word that Brings Good Tidings! – B U D E T The G is missing because the US Fed Govt took it! ;-)

Ok. we have been talking about attitude, debt, and more attitude, Lets talk about faith now, James says that faith without works is dead. So lets put this faith to work and set up a budget. The first thing we need to do is recognize how income is divided.

The first part belongs to God. This is returned to Him in recognition that He owns all that we have, that we are the stewards or managers of His resources.

Now, the government wants its share that is called taxes.

Now we come to what is called net spendable income.\

The families needs have to be met. This is the most important part of the budget as we can see from 1 Tim 5:8

2 Corinthians 8:14

14 Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal.

Even if there is no debt the finances should be managed to maximize the surplus.

So we see the division of income as

1.tithe

taxes

Family Needs

debts

and finally we get to a surplus!

But how? First of all you need to know where you are at

What is the present level of spending? To determine this you need a way to track your spending. The best way, I think is to buy one of those little pocket notebooks and write down how much you spent and what it was spent on. This includes everything from utility bills to that fountain soda you bought at the gas station. Also In this book record the amt you got paid for the month. After that first month subtract from your income what your expenses were- Income -Outgo= ? Or lets make an algebra problem out of this, just for fun:

I-O=X

Now is x a positive number or a negative number?

Just to keep it simple lets say your income for the month was $1,000 and your outgo or expenses were $900- that leaves you with a $100 surplus for the month- That is great! Now you have$100 to share! Now suppose your income for the month was $1000 and your outgo (expenses) were $1500- that means you have a 500 dollar deficit- you could be a senator or congressman/woman!

But only if you do not address the deficit and the reason for it and the attitude(what scriptural principle was violated?) that got you in the red to start with. Once this occurs a few other things happen- family needs can’t met for one. What does the Bible say about this?

1 Timothy 5:8

New King James Version (NKJV)

8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Very strong words from a man, the Apostle Paul, and he did not beat around the bush about this. That is good reason enough to get a handle on your money ills as quickly as possible! If you do not handle your money properly- it will handle you- and that means it will control you instead of you controlling it! How do you get control over your finances in a timely manner so you can be sure to meet the needs of your family? No one likes this word and many will say it is restricting but it will actually give you more freedom- it is called a budget. As of this writing the US government has been operating without a buget for over 1,000 days and our elected leaders cannot seem to understand why we are in debt and operating on a defict- An intersting figure I came across- the debt owed by the US – each individual person, man, woman and child portion of that debt is $148,000! I am not being political here but am pointing out the dire consequences of not having a budget and how being that irresponsible efefcts those that depend on you to take care of them and provide for them. Ok so what would a budget look like? Something like this for one month

Income: _________

Taxes: __ ________

Tithe:___________ (we will discuss this in more detail later)

Icome less taxes and tithe = net spendable income.

Net Spendable Income=

Living Expenses ( remember this should not exceed 70% of the net spendable income.)

Mortgage or rent_______

Utility bills

electric bill _______

Gas Bill ___________

Water______________

Sanitation________

Groceries__________

Clothing_________

Entertainment_________

Misc________________ (such as haircuts, school lunches ect anyting that does not fit in any category)

Auto

Car Payment_______

Insurance ________

Gas& Oil________

Repairs _______ ____ you have been lucky so far!

Tot Living Expenses___________

Insurance – Look at your paystub for this the reason I do these deductions seperate is that this give a cleared picture od the spending

Life_____

Medical_______

Dental__________

Debts

Credit Card(s) ________

Personal Loans______

Savings ______

Net Spendable Income________

Less

Total Monthly Expense______

A positve number = a surplus

Anegaftive number = a deficit

Input your numbers in the blanks and see where you stand!

Do you have a surplus like the state of Indiana? Or do you have a deficit like the federal government?